The Badlapur police investigating the death of a two-and-half-year-old girl, initially suspected to be a case of kidnapping, on Saturday arrested the child’s 45-year-old grandmother for her murder.

According to the police, the arrested suspect, Mangal Borse, has allegedly confessed that she drowned her own grand-daughter as the child was suffering from cerebral palsy and she was fed up of questions from relatives about her illness.

On August 15 morning, the Badlapur police had registered a kidnapping case on a complaint lodged by Ketki Hire’s parents, after they could not locate their daughter. Later, in the evening, they found Ketki’s body in a nullah at Ganesh Ghat in Badlapur.

“The autopsy report of the victim revealed she died due to drowning. We then called her grand-mother Mangal for questioning. Mangal had earlier given a statement that between 9.30 am and 10 am, while she was taking Ketki in an autorickshaw to drop her to her parents’ house near Apte Wadi in Badlapur, the child was kidnapped by an unidentified woman who sped away in an autorickshaw,” said Ishwar Aandhalkar, senior police inspector from Badlapur Police station.

“After the cause of Ketki’s death was found to be drowning and it was learnt that she had died around 6 am, our suspicions were aroused as it was inconsistent with the statement given by her grand-mother Mangal,” said Aandhalkar.

“Neither the Hire couple nor the victim’s grand-parents had received any ransom call. We were suspecting some family dispute behind the killing, but on Saturday, we received the autopsy report and questioned the grand-mother. She confessed to killing Ketki.

The girl was suffering from celebral palsy. Mangal would religiously take care of her when Ketki’s parents went to work. In fact, the child stayed with Mangal and when Ketki’s parents had holidays, was she dropped off at their house,” said Aandhalkar.

According to the police, Mangal killed Ketki owing to constant questions from neighbours and relatives and her concerns about how the child would lead her life.

“Mangal stated in her confession that she felt embarrassed to reply to relatives about her grand-daughter’s illness and disability. Repeated questioning by neighbours and relatives had pushed her into a negative frame of mind about her grand-daughter, so she decided to kill her. She took the girl and threw her in a nullah near Ganga Ghat and came back,”added Aandhalkar.